California State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez plans to write legislation allowing students to sue their university for changing how fees they voted upon are used.
Davis Enterprise, The (CA) - Thursday, July 1, 2010
Author: Cory Golden ; Enterprise staff writer

California State Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez plans to write legislation allowing students to sue their university for changing how fees they voted upon are used.

He also plans to question UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi about gender equity in athletics at an upcoming Senate hearing.

Both are in response to UCD's decision, announced in April, to eliminate four sports teams.

Responding to two letters from Florez with one of her own, Katehi expressed "full faith" in the process by which women's rowing — as well as men's wrestling, men's swimming and diving, and men's indoor track and field — were singled out for elimination.

Katehi will appear before the Senate's Select Committee on Gender Discrimination and Title IX Implementation on July 12, university spokeswoman Julia Ann Easley confirmed Wednesday.

UCD also is complying with a request from Florez to provide the committee with a written plan explaining short- and long-term gender equity plans, Easley said.

UCD announced in April it would ax the four teams, affecting 72 female and 80 male student-athletes.

The move came as the campus continued to grapple with state budget cuts over two years totaling more than $150 million. UCD athletics had been running a $1.4 million deficit, officials said at the time of the cuts, and anticipated the move would get the department out of the red in three to five years.

In his first letter to the chancellor, dated May 27, Florez , D-Shafter, lamented the effect that dropping wrestling would have on a UCD student-athlete from his district — a student Florez described as coming from a disadvantaged background that would not have allowed him to attend UCD were it not for wrestling.

The cuts came "without sufficient warning," Florez wrote, making it impossible for students to obtain scholarships or apply for financial aid.

In a June 4 response, Katehi said efforts were made to make the announcement in time for the early signing period for national letters of intent, so that affected athletes could make decisions about their futures. The signing period opened April 14; the announcement was made April 16.

Student-athletes from the eliminated programs who chose to stay on as UCD students will continue to receive the same aid if they continue progress toward graduation.

Florez wrote that cutting teams ran counter to what students expected when they voted several years ago to increase fees to support athletics.

"While the funding revenue was compulsory, how it gets spent is now discretionary," he wrote.

Katehi disagreed. She wrote that referenda in 1994 and 2002 were recommendations to the chancellor and that the cuts did not violate student initiative requirements.

The first vote was based on a 23-team athletic program and funding also went to support intramural and club sports, as well as other programs, she wrote. After the cuts, UCD athletics is continuing on with 23 teams: 14 for women and nine for men.

The second student vote was intended to support the transition to NCAA Division I athletics and provides for fully funding grants-in-aid. Such student support is ongoing. She added that the measure allowed for the possibility of future budget cuts.

Katehi added that the university remains committed to complying with the Title IX gender-equity law.

In his June 23 letter, however, Florez said alleged violations of the law by UCD in recent years "raise serious concerns" about compliance. Last year, UCD settled a Title IX lawsuit by agreeing to bring women's participation in sports to within 1.5 percent of its total female student body within 10 years.

"Some could argue that this action calls into question the sincerity of UC Davis' commitment" during the 2009 settlement, Florez added.

Returning to the 2002 student vote, he noted that the measure's core principles said UCD "cannot retreat from Title IX compliance but must continue to expand its efforts and compliance."

Katehi defended the process of selecting which athletic programs to cut, calling it "comprehensive, fair and deliberate" and done with the "best interests of the university and our intercollegiate athletic program and its student-athletes in mind."

The result, she said, was the "most realistic approach to supporting continued academic and athletic excellence."

Jennifer Hanson, a spokesperson for Florez , said the senator likely would include language giving students the ability to sue over the changing use of fees as a budget trailer.

It's just one more reason UCD has to be anxious about yet another overdue state budget. The campus is planning for a budget shortfall of $38 million to $78 million for fiscal year 2010-11, depending on what deals are made in Sacramento.

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